Sense and Sensibility

Is Marianne marrying colonel brandon a truly happy ending?

Marianne marries brandon , however it seems like she only falls in love with him after marriage , and when she does fall for him it's deep like the love she had for willoughby.However is that true love , or is it only because marianne cant help herself and thats the only way she knows how to love. Like she says in the beginning in the book "esteem him , like him cold hearted elinor" , she cant accept anything less than full blown passionate love ; and does she just recreate that out of neccessity with colonel brandon , so she doesnt have a loveless marriage?

Asked by
solange H #444449
on 5/16/2015 11:40 AM

Last updated by
Liv D #515214
on 3/31/2016 10:34 PM

Answers
2

"...Marianne found her own happiness in forming his [Brandon:]... Marianne could never love by halves; and her whole heart became in time, as much devoted to her husband, as it had once been to Willoughby."

Sounds pretty happy to me.

Source(s)

In the beggining of the book, Marianne and Elinor both declare that they could never marry Colonel Brandon, that he was far too old. Marianne complained that Brandon didn't share her love of the arts, and that was her reason for having to intention of being wed to him.

But as fate may make it, the one Marianne intended to marry, Willoughby, turned out to be a two-timer and got Eliza (II) pregnant.

But at the end of the book, Austen tells us that "Marianne could never love by halves;" that she was truly happy in the end, despite what Marianne said at the beginning of the novel.